The Great Game Called Cricket...

They must have read about it. They must have heard about it. They must have planned for it. Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla have played a Test there before. Nothing, though, can be preparation enough for an Indian comeback from the dead at Eden Gardens.

On Sunday, South Africa met the devil himself, and didn't know what to do. They had reached 218 for 1 in 58 overs, via assured and quick centuries from Amla and debutant Alviro Petersen, when the famous Eden Gardens turnaround began. Eight wickets fell for 43 runs, Harbhajan Singh took three in two overs, VVS Laxman ran from first slip to short fine leg to take a catch, the crowd seemingly intimidated the batsmen, two of the middle-order batsmen just froze, AB de Villiers ran himself out, Zaheer Khan hit with a pick-up-and-throw, and the batsmen forgot about scoring runs.

And, by the way, there were only about 35,000 present in the ground because half the stands have been brought down for renovation. And it was virtually a two-man attack, with Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra looking innocuous for most of the day. And Amla and Petersen had all but beaten the hapless looking fielding unit into submission.

Parallels with The Test were inescapable. Australia had pummelled India in Mumbai back in 2000-01, much like South Africa did in Nagpur. Australia had reached 193 for 1 in Kolkata when the Harbhajan show began with the wicket of Matthew Hayden.

Today, though, it was Zaheer who started the magic. Ishant had just bowled a spell full of bouncers in the afternoon, hitting Amla - not out on 100-plus - on the arm guard once, but had overdone the short stuff. Zaheer, though, got the wickets, dismissing a centurion either side of tea. He did Petersen in with slight seam movement away from off, and then got a top edge from Amla. Two wickets for 11 runs, game on again.

Harbhajan, who had got drift and bounce, looked better than he did in Nagpur, and had Amla dropped when on 60, could now sense it. He tossed the ball up nicely, got dip and drift, Kallis and de Villiers tried to hit him off rhythm by lofting him for straight boundaries. Harbhajan kept at it, didn't fire deliveries into the pads, didn't overdo doosras. Only six times he pitched on middle and leg to the right-hand batsmen, that too when bowling from round the stumps.

The breakthrough finally came when Kallis looked to slog-sweep him, and top-edged a sharp topspinner. It went high towards short fine leg, Laxman - a dropped sitter in his account already - ran back from slip and made this blinder. Harbhajan held arms aloft, gestured towards the crowd, and they responded. They were going to be the 12th man now.

In his next over, Harbhajan got Ashwell Prince, back in the middle order but still low on confidence. This was no magic delivery, just a straight topspinner, and Prince played for the big offbreak. Harbhajan knew he had got him when he appealed, ran straight towards the boundary, and sent the crowd into delirium. The crowd fed off Harbhajan, Harbhajan fed off the crowd. JP Duminy should have known better than playing for an offbreak, instead he got Harbhajan's ball of the day. Drifting, dipping, going straight with the arm, and getting another plumb lbw. Dale Steyn survived the hat-trick, but the day had turned.

Harbhajan Singh celebrates Ashwell Prince's wicket, India v South Africa, 2nd Test, Kolkata, 1st day, February 14, 2010
Harbhajan Singh led India's riposte after tea © Getty Images

In the next over, de Villiers wanted a single and the strike, Steyn reckoned there was no need to panic, and sent him back. Zaheer ran in from mid-off to cover, picked up and threw in one motion, and found de Villiers short. Ishant and Mishra came back too, getting their first wickets of the series, in their 43rd and 71st overs of the series. Sitting inside the dressing room, Petersen must have wondered just what had happened to what was supposed to be his day.

After the early fall of Graeme Smith, both Petersen and Amla batted with clarity of thought that sets apart teams that are ahead in a contest. Amla began as if 253 not out overnight, and took his tally to 367 runs in the series before he got out. Petersen, a late bloomer in first-class cricket, took little time to get into his stride and became only the third South African to score a century on Test debut.

Both of them counterattacked - without fuss, without manic hitting, without needing to go in the air - bringing up the 100 in 20 overs, hitting 17 boundaries in that period. Ten of those came from Petersen, who was composed and decisive in his footwork.

Petersen's plan revolved around the front foot: press forward whenever possible, defend if the line is good, and go for runs if it is either too wide or too straight. No runs down the ground, four flicks for boundaries, and two gorgeous cover-drives worked fine for him in the first half of his effort, after which he became more circumspect and let Amla lead the scoring.

The first ball Amla faced, he moved across to Zaheer, and eased an accurate delivery past square leg for two - not much power, just good timing. The two gorgeous cover-drives he played early on in the innings, one each against Zaheer and Ishant, put him into the high strike-rate mode too. Throughout his effort Amla confidently whipped from in front of stumps, and cut with ease.

In the middle session, Amla survived a good spell from Harbhajan, and even played his first aerial shot of the series, clearing mid-off, Mishra, by inches. Both the batsmen reached their centuries without further incident, but Kolkata was up to mischief soon after.

Nagpur: Having pinned India down with a career-best seven-wicket haul in the ongoing first Test, South African speedster Dale Steyn said the scalps of Sachin Tendulkar and Murali Vijay gave him the most satisfaction because of the planning that went behind their dismissals.

"Tendulkar and Vijay’s wickets were special. I worked Vijay out quite nicely with two balls that went away and then bringing one back which he left (to see it hit the stumps). That kind of stuff just doesn't happen out in the middle. We really have to plan it," said Steyn.

Steyn said it was important to set the field positions right and that's the reason these dismissals were special.

"It's a challenge for the captain too to make sure the fielders are in the right position for those specific deliveries as well. That makes those wickets so sweet," Steyn said.

He said coach Corrie van Zyl was not happy with the bowlers' efforts in the middle session and during the tea break, he asked them to lift their performance.

"Corrie sat us down at tea and said that the session after lunch wasn't good enough. We didn't get the wickets that we wanted and we went for a few runs. He asked us to lift it up a little bit," Steyn said.

“Corrie said the post- tea session is what really defines a player. You've already been out in the field four hours and now you've got to go and do another two. When you come to India, the days do tend to get warm and there's no real movement off the deck. There's nothing really happening. So little speeches like that can lift the players a lot," he said.

Steyn said the ball that was changed post-tea, started to reverse swing which helped his cause.

"We had the ball changed because the one we were using had split open, and once it started to reverse and we got one or two lucky dismissals, it just started a roll. The planning as well the execution was good," he said about his devastating spell of five for three in 3.4 overs soon after tea.

The pacer, who is eight short of completing 200 Test wickets, said the team members had talked about the importance of reverse swing in Indian conditions and on pitches which don't offer lateral movement.

"Before the Test started, we said that reverse swing was going to be a key on these flat pitches. You're not going to get a lot of sideways movement off the wicket. There's not a lot of grass on them. You've got to rely on getting the ball to do something through the air.

"I said before that a ball bowled at 145k, a yorker, whether it's in Johannesburg or Nagpur, is still 145ks in the air. The plan was to hit the deck hard, with pace," he explained.

Top class Test cricket can be ruthless like a pack of hungry wild dogs. If you can’t outrun them, be ready to be hunted down and devoured. India’s depleted batting line-up realized that on day-three.

In one of the most devastating exhibitions of swing bowling, Dale Steyn flattened India's deprived batting line-up. After finishing with a figure of 7 for 51 in the first innings, he came back to remove Sehwag in the second. © AFP

Dale Steyn changed the course of the match with devastating swing bowling. He brought alive the same strip where Indian bowlers struggled and collared the host team with a career-best figure of 7 for 51 in just 16.4 overs. World’s top Test team was flattened for a sorry figure of 233 in just 64.4 overs. Steyn finished the day with an incredible haul of eight wickets.

Quite ironically, exactly 58 years ago India had scripted its first Test victory against England in Chennai.

With his wrecker-in-chief Steyn in murderous mood and a lead of 325 runs, skipper Graeme Smith promptly asked India to follow-on. The touring captain, who had marshaled his resources and field brilliantly, threw the challenge once again to the opposition. Made to follow on, the demoralized Team India finished the day at 66 for 2.

With Sachin Tendulkar unbeaten at 15 and Murali Vijay at 27, both have some firewalking to do on day-four if India have to escape to a draw.

In the second innings, shock and despair hung heavily in the air and the two openers Gautam Gambhir (1) and Virender Sehwag (16) were guilty of failing to shut them out and get on with the job. The result was disastrous — both perished in quick succession, leaving India at 24 for 2 after 4.4 overs. The Steyn-Morkel duo had struck again.

Earlier, just 11 overs into the day’s proceedings and South Africans had achieved what they had set out for — Gautam Gambhir, Murali Vijay and Sachin Tendulkar were packed off by the Dale Steyn-Morne Morkel duo. India were left numb at 56 for 3.

Amidst early ruins, there stood Virender Sehwag (109) — tall as ever. Unconcerned and unaffected by what was happening at the other end, he carried on the only way he’s been engineered to. It’s as much a pleasure as it is a mystery how this 31-year-old opener has kept his batting so simple and unrestrained. And now he has added another deadly ingredient to his batting — application.


For the period it lasted, Virender Sehwag epitomised defiance amidst ruins. He scored a fine century (109) but it wasn't enough on the day. © AFP
When Steyn and Morkel were breathing fire, he stood there like a monk but wielded his willow like a virtuoso composer with a baton in the middle of a concerto. And not surprisingly runs were flowing like music.

Balls that pitched slightly away from the off-stump were seen off with utmost care, and when they pitched in his zone, they disappeared to the fence. No half measures for Sehwag.

Steyn, Morkel and Parnell were compulsively cut and driven and quite often fielders didn’t have time to react. They only fetched it from the boundary.

On one occasion, Parnell was straight driven to the fence before he could finish his follow through. Some of the cover drives appeared to have been fired from Bofors howitzer gun, such was the power and precision. A few drives even left Steyn, who was on fire, nodding his head in sheer disbelief and admiration.

Second session is meant to be an extension of the first. The Sehwag-Badrinath combine that had bailed India out in the second hour of the first session couldn’t quite carry on the good work through the post-lunch session. After scripting a perfect counter-attack and going on to score a blazing century, Sehwag perished to a loose shot.

A good captain never stops plotting opposition’s fall. Graeme Smith epitomizes this trait. First he made Sehwag struggle to get to his century. With fielders flooding the on side, left-arm spinner Paul Harris bowled a negative line outside the leg stump to keep Sehwag silent on 99 for a couple of overs. And then Smith brought the innocuous looking left-arm pacer Wayne Parnell to have a go at Sehwag. The rookie speedster kept daring the centurion with a line wide outside the off-stump. Sehwag flashed hard twice and picked up two boundaries but soon after played a lofted shot, which was snapped up by JP Duminy at deep extra cover. Sehwag made that long walk back absolutely gutted, as Smith celebrated the dismissal. If only Sehwag had seen off Parnell…

Post tea, Smith yet again came up with a masterstroke and lobbed the ball to his trusted henchman. And Steyn opened the floodgates.

With an old ball, Steyn punched a hole into India’s lower batting order. He first removed the settled batsman Badrinath (56) with a fine reverse swinging delivery that came in sharply. The debutant failed to keep the ball down and was caught at short mid-wicket by Ashwell Prince. Next over, he accounted for another debutant Wriddhiman Saha who had no clue where his off stump was. He shouldered arms to Steyn’s delivery that came back sharply to disturb his timber. The world’s top-ranked bowler was not done yet. He came back to dismiss Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra in quick succession and in the process pick up 13th five-for of his 37-Test career.

In one frenzied session, India lost its last six wickets in 42 deliveries, with Steyn picking up five of them. The fast bowler finished with an awe-inspiring figure of 7 for 51 in just 16.4 overs. The only other wicket was claimed by left-arm spinner Paul Harris, who had Dhoni caught behind. Indian innings folded at 233.

Amidst rumours that Gary Kirsten’s name is in circulation in the South African media to succeed Mickey Arthur as the coach of the national team, the BCCI has confirmed his contract as Team India’s coach will be extended until next year.

Mickey Arthur’s resignation, following differences with the board and has left the Proteas without a permanent coach ahead of the important tour to India.

Kirsten, who joined the Indian team as their mentor in March 2008 on a two-year contract basis was tipped to be a favourite to replace Arthur.

The BCCI president Shashank Manohar, however, confirmed that Kirsten’s contract, which expires next month, will be renewed for another year.

"He will continue his stint with the Indian team, we'll renew his contract,” Manohar said.

When asked for his statement, Kirsten said he had not been contacted by Cricket South Africa.

The Indian selectors have called up Rohit Sharma to the squad for the first Test against South Africa as cover for VVS Laxman. Laxman hasn't fully recovered from the finger injury he sustained while fielding during the first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong last month.

Captaining the Indian Board President's XI in the tour game against the South Africans, Rohit managed just 20 but was delighted with his selection. "It feels good that I've been asked to stay back...Bahut hi achcha lag raha hai (I'm feeling great)," he told the Kolkata-based Telegraph.

This is the first time Rohit is part of the Test squad since the 2008 visit to Sri Lanka. He was in fine form during the Ranji Trophy this season, making 527 at 87.83, including a highest of 309* against Gujarat.

Meanwhile, Laxman skipped the team's fielding practice on Wednesday afternoon, but did have a bat at the nets.

India will be sweating over the injuries that have dogged the side of late - key batsmen Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and fast bowler Sreesanth have already been ruled out of this match.

Captain MS Dhoni, though, looked to have recovered fully from the back spasms which forced him to miss the Chittagong Test. "One can't have any control over injuries. Obviously, we'll miss Dravid. It's like a captain having no control at all over the toss."

Big Picture
Finally Pakistan's drawn out, controversial and currently win-less tour comes to an end. At the start of the summer they were a chance of challenging Australia in the Test series. Then they were determined to topple them with a band of reinforcements in the one-day series. After losing eight internationals in a row, this is the last opportunity to do something successful.


The good news is the tourists are the World Twenty20 champions after their triumph in England last year and they have won their past seven games in this genre. However, they will be without their captain Shahid Afridi, who was so hungry in the final ODI in Perth that he chomped on the ball. After admitting to tampering, he will miss two Twenty20s before being allowed back. That leaves Shoaib Malik in charge as the third leader of the trip.

Australia should be confident given their form this season, but this is their weakest format and they have won only 11 of their 24 internationals. Michael Clarke is captain full-time after Ricky Ponting's T20 retirement, but already there have been calls for Cameron White to have the top job given Clarke's apparent unsuitability to the game.

Form guide (Most recent first)
Australia ANLLL
Pakistan WWWWW


Watch out for…


Umar Gul didn't have much fun in the one-day series and hasn't played since delivering a nine-ball over that cost 23 in Adelaide. Those numbers should be ignored by the selectors because Gul is a Twenty20 master. He is the most successful bowler in the world in this format, with 39 wickets at 11.58 in 23 games.


Steven Smith is a batsman-legspinner who is most exciting for his brutal shot-making. Only 20, Smith has immense power and has quickly proved he is ready for international action, although the rise may have come a little too quickly for his bowling. He had limited opportunities in the Big Bash with the bat, but took seven wickets at 10.28 in five games and has 310 runs and nine victims in seven one-day domestic contests.

Team news
Australia have some strong fast bowlers to choose from, with Ryan Harris, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes jostling for three spots. There is also competition at the top of the order with Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh and David Warner all preferring to walk out first.


Australia squad Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh, David Warner, Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White, Travis Birt, David Hussey, Steven Smith, Brad Haddin (wk), Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait.

Pakistan have to tinker to fill the various roles of Afridi and are also without Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, who don't play Twenty20s. There are still 15 players with the squad so the touring selectors have plenty of options.

Pakistan squad Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal (wk), Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik (capt), Salman Butt, Khalid Latif, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Imran Farhat, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Saeed Ajmal, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Mohammad Aamer.

Pitch and conditions
The surface in Melbourne is usually hard work for everyone in the longer forms of the game, but that can often be overcome in Twenty20s. The weather might also be tricky, with rain predicted in the morning before easing to isolated showers.

Stats and trivia


•Australia have lost both times they have faced Pakistan in Twenty20s
•Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal have played 27 T20 internationals, four behind the leader Brendon McCullum, while Australia's most experienced men are Michael Clarke and Nathan Bracken, who is not in the squad, on 19.
•Australia haven't completed a T20 game since their first-round exit at the World Twenty20 in June. Their two games against England in September were wash outs.
•The MCG has hosted two of these internationals, with Australia winning each time


Quotes
"We have to win this game. We are professionals and not [just] looking forward to us going back to our country after 100 days. We're just concentrating on tomorrow's match."
Shoaib Malik, Pakistan's stand-in captain

"They're the best team in the world at this format of the game. We'll have to play exceptionally well again to beat them."
Cameron White, Australia's vice-captain

KARACHI: A repentant Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi tendered an unconditional apology to the country and the cricket world after being penalised

by the ICC for ball tampering, saying he would not repeat the "mad thing" again in future.

Afridi, who was caught on television biting into the ball during the final overs of the Australian innings in the fifth ODI in Perth and was slapped two Twenty20 International ban, said he was sorry for having caused embarrassment to his countrymen and fans.

"I really don't know what happened to me that made me do such a mad thing. It was not right and I apologize for my actions to everyone," he said.

Afridi was charged with an article 2.2.9 offence of the ICC Code of Conduct which relates to 'changing the condition of the ball in breach of Law 42.3 of the Laws of Cricket'.

He will miss Pakistan's next two Twenty20 Internationals against the same opponents on Friday in Melbourne and against England in Dubai on February 19.

"What happened was very unfortunate and should not have happened. I have learnt from my mistake and will not repeat it again," Afridi said.

"Maybe I lost my cool because our team had not done well in Australia and finally close to a win. But my intentions were just to help the bowlers but I chose the wrong way to do it," he added.

Afridi, however, said that what happened was nothing new in cricket and other teams also tried to alter condition of the ball to give some advantage to their bowlers.

Pakistan Cricket Board sources said immediately after television cameras showed Afridi biting into the ball to change its condition, a top official called up team manager Abdul Raquib and instructed him not to send Afridi for the closing ceremony and instead ask regular captain Mohammad Yousuf to do that job.

"Raquib was also told that Afridi should not be allowed to speak to the media after the match and that he should immediately accept his mistake and apologize to match referee, Ranjan Madugalle," one PCB official said.

He said this was done to avoid more controversy and problems for Afridi.

"The board has now asked the team management to send Afridi back home early as he is no longer required with the team," he added.

In 2005, Afridi was banned for twisting his spikes and trying to change condition of pitch during a Test match in Faisalabad against England.

Well placed sources, however, said despite the ball tampering incident and two match ban, the board officials were impressed with the way Afridi wholeheartedly led the side in the absence of Yousuf.

"He is definitely our next One Day Internationals captain but since he himself is not very keen on playing Test cricket the board will look at other candidates to lead the side in the longest format," one source said.